The Journey of the Cross

In grace God offers us forgiveness, cleansing, liberation and healing as he meets us in the places of our lives that are most alienated from him; he is involved in the most terrible aspects our hearts. I think this is what makes this journey uncomfortable. This journey towards wholeness in Christ, or the process of being conformed to Christ-likeness, primarily takes place at the points of our unlikeness.

Why can’t he meet me where I rock? Start where I am doing well? How much of my devos, church life, and worship are set up simply to affirm myself in the areas I am already doing well in?

It is obvious that if spiritual formation is about us in the process of being conformed to the image of Christ, it is going to take place in those spots not yet conformed. As the spirit pushes at some area in our lives it will always be confrontational as he challenges us to come out of brokenness of self into wholeness in Christ. The confrontation will come through various channels like the Word, worship, preaching, a friend, an enemy, a situation. The reason this is such a struggle at times is that this part of unlikeness—this brokenness—is who we are! It is not something we wear that needs to be taken off. It is us!

Christ tells us in Luke 9:23 to “Deny yourself.” I noticed that he doesn’t say deny sin, or deny the world, or deny a particular enjoyment …he says deny yourself. That part of me not conformed to the image is not a thing in me – it is an essential part of who I am. Jesus knew that in order to deny ourselves we would need a radical change. In order to deny our total self he goes on to say, “take up the cross.” All of me must die so that Christ can live through me.

Do we fully get what taking up the cross really means? Those who first heard this call knew exactly what it meant. If you took up a cross you had said good-bye to everything; you were going to die.

There seems to be a new cross in our churches today. It is like the old cross, but different: It comes with a padded shoulder rest; it is more compact and comes in three choices of popular colours. A.W. Tozer talked about the difference between the new cross and the old cross and how from the new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian Life – a philosophy of “redirecting the person”, and offering everything the world does, but cleaner. The new cross encourages a new life but not denial or the surrendering of the old life before this new life can be received. But the old cross would have nothing to do with the world. It meant the end of that journey and a new one beginning.

“The cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The person in Roman times who took up their cross and started down the road had already said good bye to their friends. They were not coming back. They were not going out to have their life redirected; they were going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the person, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the person was no more. God salvages the person by liquidating them and then raising them again to newness of life.”
A.W. Tozer

In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane; we leave it at the cross. This is the daily journey … a journey of dying daily to myself and allowing God to raise me up again to wholeness in the image of Christ. And with so many other voices telling me how to have a full life, it is not an easy journey without spending a significant amount of time in prayer in the Word and with other believers, and serving Christ every day.

Prayer and Church Planting ...

I was recently thinking about our church plant and how we may set up the greatest church programs, have the best worship and preaching, reach out to the lost and hurting of Muskoka, and try all we can to foster a community of love and grace … and yet nothing we do physically will change hearts. We need a spiritual work to accomplish a spiritual goal. This is where the power of prayer comes in. John Wesley said that “God does nothing but in the answering of prayer”

I was completely blown away when we visited another Harvest church plant and heard of prayer after prayer being answered. They saw God's Spirit do some amazing things when people were on their knees in a humble place, and in a position to receive more of God. Our church plant group is meeting in different homes tomorrow evening to pray together and hopefully begin a pattern and habit of doing this – humbly putting Christ first in everything about this plant and in everything in our lives.

"I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me."
Galatians 2:20

As I begin to think more deeply about looking to Christ for a new church my thoughts were drawn to Galatians 2:20. We all need to have Christ in, over, and through us. He needs to be in me … and not just in the "Jesus, come into my heart" sense of 'in me.' He needs to have full access to everything in my heart … he needs to be allowed to see even the dark spaces no one else has ever seen.

He needs to be over me … no more hierarchy of Jesus, family, ministry, hobbies, etc. It is all Jesus … everything else finds its meaning and purpose and place in Him. It is all in Christ … I need to seek Him first and allow His the authority in all of it … then I can stop with the competing needs that pull me in all directions.

He then needs to be able to live through me. I need to be nothing—except Christ like. I need to allow Him to transform the way I live and interact with people. He has already changed me … I now need to allow the change to live out in my life. I can be so prideful sometimes and want people to recognize me for my accomplishments, my humour, my personality, etc. It seems I want to be known for things other than Christ-likeness. This has got to change … I want people to be able to see Christ in me - living out in love, grace, holiness, meekness, humility, and wisdom.

Christ in us, over us, and through us.

A Different Kind of Retreat

When I heard we were going on a retreat I envisioned a rustic setting surrounded by creation with time for quiet reflection and group interaction. Well, when the camp in northern Wisconsin was booked the back-up plan for our retreat was the largest indoor waterpark in the United States. Different? Yes … I am sure McKinley enjoyed this type of retreat much more than the typical living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

We went to a place called, Kalahari. More waterslides than had I ever seen! Unfortunately, McKinley is your typical 2-year old … they can watch the same episode of Blue’s Clues over and over AND they can ride on the same waterslide 400 times in a row. “McKinley, do you want to try another slide?” “No, daddy, let’s do the yellow slide again!” No real spiritual insight or analogy from this – a good time, a good break and a sweet day with my girls.